|
Lenten Season Devotions 2017
|
Friday, April 14, 2017 - John Dodds, Elder
|
The Final Judgment
Matthew 25:31-46 ESV
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his
glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32
Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one
from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will
place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will
say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.35 For I was hungry
and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and
you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited
me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him,
saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you
drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and
clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And
the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the
least of these my brothers,[a] you did it to me.’ 41 “Then he will say to those on his left,
‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and
his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you
gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you
did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they
also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a
stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he
will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of
the least of these, you did not do it to me.’46 And these will go away into
eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
------------------------------------------
As Jesus wends his way to the cross I think
it is important to remember his teachings about the life we must lead to inherit
the kingdom. We may be counting on his crucifixion and resurrection to be the
sole road to salvation, but in Mathew 25 Jesus talks about ways we can be saved
or be lost. This parable makes it plain about the life the Lord expects us to
lead if we follow him and seek eternal life.
He talks about the time when the Son of Man
comes in his glory and sits on his glorious throne. He says, “Come, you who are
blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world.”
He tells how those who inherit the Kingdom
found him when he was hungry and thirsty and they fed him and gave him drink, a
stranger and they welcomed him, sick and they visited him, in prison and they
came to him, naked and they clothed him. But those he was speaking to basically
said, “Lord, we never did any of these things for you. What are you talking
about?”
40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I
say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,[a] you did
it to me.’
In His Kingdom we help those in need, even
though they are the least of us, the poorest of us, the most down trodden of us,
because as we do so we are helping Jesus himself. That is his charge to us to
be a Beloved society, that cares about our neighbors and all of God’s
children.
In his parable, to those who did not help
the poor and hungry and afflicted He said, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the
eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
So when you think that just believing in
Jesus as the Son of God who rose from the dead is your ticket to Heaven, I
suggest that you look at the way you treat your fellow man and woman as equally
important in your life and in your journey to the afterlife. This is the caring
world that our Savior is asking us to create as part of our life as a follower
of Him.
In Love, John Dodds
|
|
